Venezuela struggles with huge oil export backlog

Venezuela is nearly a month behind delivering crude to customers from its main oil export terminals, according to shipping data, as chronic delays and production declines could breach state-run PDVSA’s supply contracts if they are not cleared soon. The oil company in recent days has raised the prospect that deliveries could be interrupted to some of the world’s largest refiners if it fails to end a tanker bottleneck contributing to a sharp decline in oil exports, the lifeblood of the OPEC-member nation. Tankers waiting to load more than 24 million barrels of crude, almost as much as PDVSA shipped in April, are sitting off the country’s main oil port, according to the data. The backlog is so severe, […]